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Shankill manager Gareth McKeown says his players need to be more “streetwise” if they are to fulfil their ambitions.

The Agnes Street side have enjoyed a superb season across the board in McKeown’s debut campaign as a boss.

United are sitting pretty in third place in the league and now through to the semi-finals of the Clarence Cup following Saturday’s victory over St Oliver Plunkett at the Hammer.

But as has been their way this season, they made it hard for themselves, squandering the lead twice only to eventually overcome the Lenadoon men on penalty kicks.

It’s been a similar story in the league too with both Crumlin Star and East Belfast hitting back towards the end of their games to overturn a 1-0 deficit and claim the points.

As he reflects on the progress his team have made, McKeown knows he can’t be too critical.

For the last few years, Shankill have found themselves languishing in the bottom half of the table and uncomfortably close to the relegation battlers, so this season has been plain-sailing by comparison.

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With that in mind, the former Crusaders defender admits he’s been more than satisfied with how his squad have adapted to his and his number two Mark Picking’s methods, but with honours still up for grabs, he says his players need to improve how they see games out if they are to realise their potential and properly challenge the current dominance of Crumlin Star.

Shankill player/manager Gareth McKeown

“We’re doing rightly, we’re moving in the right direction anyway,” said McKeown.

“So we can’t really complain and all the boys are pulling in the right direction. There’s been no pressure on them, we’ve just told them to go out and play, and we’re trying to get them to pass and move and to be fair, they’ve been doing that.

“We’ve been creating a lot of chances and we’ve a good formation there and we’ve a bit of depth to the squad.

“For us now, it’s game management that we need to work on. We were beating Crumlin Star 1-0 with five minutes to go and we got beat 2-1, we were beating East Belfast 1-0 and they came back to 2-1, that’s twice they have done that, so it’s just seeing out games and being more streetwise, to defend when you have to. But we’re close, I would say we’re very close to competing for a top three spot.

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“And the ones who have been at the club a while are saying this is the best season we’ve ever had at this level.”

Colin McCready was singled out for praise after grabbing both goals in Saturday’s game.

McKeown says the teenage striker has been a revelation, and is predicting a bright future for him in the game.

“Wee Colin has been something else, he should be playing at a higher level,” said McKeown.

“He’s one of these kids who doesn’t even realise how good he is.”

Shankill United goalscorer Callan McCredie

The win means United join Ballynahinch Olympic, 4-1 victors at Comber on Saturday, in the semi-finals, with McKeown’s side to face the winners of the weather-hit East Belfast versus Rathfriland quarter-final at Seaview on April 3.

And the Shankill chief knows that with Star so rampant in the league, the Clarence offers his team their best chance of silverware.

“It was good to get the win, they are a good side,” said McKeown. “It was a great game now, but we made two stupid mistakes to give them two chances.

“But I think we have a really great chance to win it now. I said to the boys if we don’t get through this one, we’ll just be playing out the league with nothing left to play for so we want to go for it.”

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